Valeska Esch is a nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Europe Center. Her work focuses on the countries of the Western Balkans and European integration. She also works as independent consultant and analyst based in Berlin.

Previously, Esch worked as senior adviser and head of office to the German government’s special representative for the countries of the Western Balkans in the German Foreign Office. Prior to joining the German government, she was deputy executive director and program director for Europe with the Aspen Institute Germany. Esch has a longstanding experience working on the Western Balkans and has published on the Western Balkan policies of the European Union and Germany.

Esch holds an MA in political science and international and European law with a focus on European politics and Southeast Europe, for which she studied at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn and the University of Birmingham. She also worked for an event management firm and the United Nations University’s Institute for Environment and Human Security in Bonn, Germany.